


Absent

by camichats



Series: Dictionary Prompts [73]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Ficlet, Gen, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:06:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21624235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Lily once described muggle ghosts to Sirius. He didn't expect to be surrounded by them.
Series: Dictionary Prompts [73]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1027923
Kudos: 8





	Absent

Lily had explained the concept of muggle ghosts to him. They weren't visibly there, it was just the idea of them. Shadows of past events, she had said while trying to describe it. At the time, Sirius hadn't understood it. 

He did now. 

Grimmauld Place was filled with muggle ghosts. No matter how hard he tried, the rooms were never fully lit unless a group of other people was around. He'd nearly burnt the kitchen down trying to get the light where it should've been, but it didn't work. Then Albus and Snape and Kingsley had come in and suddenly it was fine. 

The portrait of his mother made it hard to forget her, but his father's memory haunted him through the narrow halls. Talk of the family legacy and couldn't he just behave? 

Regulus. All the missed chances. Regulus had needed help and guidance like Sirius had gotten from his friends, but Regulus had been on his own. Marlene, Dorcas, Mary, Lily. Merlin Lily. James. He tried not to think about it. _James_. He'd had a kid, they'd had a bloody cat, a kid broom for Harry to zoom around on-- it didn't matter that Sirius had bought that for him, James would've done it if he'd been allowed to leave the house near the end. Remus was alive but a mess and most days he visited it was like he was half-dead anyways. 

That was a pretty good description for everything in his life past and present: he tried not to think about it. 


End file.
